This month we are celebrating Black History, but there’s history yet to be made. It’s the subtleties now. Like someone saying, “Oh, I’m not racist, but I have this hilarious joke” or a black man who’s eyed carefully when he walks into a store.

Chances are if you’d hesitate to befriend a black person, you’re dabbling in racism. Just because you don’t call a black person “nigger,” does that mean you’re not racist?

Our culture masquerades in political correctness while hiding its ugly, egocentric face.

What are our true criteria for showing another human being respect?

The utmost respect is given to the scholars, to people who puff themselves up with knowledge and then flaunt their intellects by talking over the heads of the lowly.

A man or woman with a Ph.D. would never befriend a high school dropout. The effect here is similar to racism because it’s an issue of thinking one person deserves more respect than another, and the two cannot relate on an equal playing field.

But is someone with a Ph.D. a better, more intelligent being? And does intelligence come with studying the accumulated knowledge of times past?

Why do we think we’re smarter if we read the scholars before us? We are pridefully critical of their beliefs, works and ways of life, declaring ourselves intellectual as a result.

We can scrutinize and analyze them, but are we producing better answers or more comprehensive solutions ourselves? Where are the voices of today who are bettering society rather than tearing it down in analysis?

A breadth of knowledge should not define someone as “better.” A person’s brilliance should be defined innovation, an ability to change the world and the compassion emitted which may touch lives.

George Washington Carver revolutionized the world. Born of slave parents, no human ever had a less auspicious start in life. Still, Carver helped renovate the state of agriculture in the South and is a feature player in black history.

Carver graduated from Iowa State University in 1894. Upon graduation, he developed products from peanuts, sweet potatoes and pecans.

He then convinced Southern farmers to grow these crops instead of cotton, to provide new sources of income.

In effect, his discoveries freed the South from the tyranny of “King Cotton.”

Carver was convinced that peanuts could replace meat, and in a Congressional meeting he said, “Peanuts are the perfect food.”

When the skeptical House Representatives asked where he learned all of this, Carver responded, “From a book.”

“What book?” the congressmen quizzed.

“The Bible. In the first chapter of Genesis we are told, ‘Behold, I have given you every herb that bears seed upon the face of the earth, and every tree-bearing seed. To you it shall be meat.’ That’s what He means about it — meat. There is everything there to strengthen, nourish and keep the body alive and healthy.”

No doubt this “literal interpretation” of the Bible strikes some as hilarious. I hope that if you’re scoffing, you’ll change the world as much as Carver did.

Many would consider Carver less intelligent because of what he believed.

His accomplishments prove he was ingenious. His biography also shows he was neither needy nor arrogant, but that he was a wonderfully humble person.

When someone said to him, “You are surely making a great contribution to your race, Professor,” Carver replied, “My son, I am only God’s helper in this work. And I am certain He has not had in mind any particular race but the needs of all humanity.”

His words did not drip with pride and self-righteousness. Neither did he think of himself as a better person because he was “God’s helper.”

He boasted in nothing but his Lord and often hesitated to answer people’s questions until he had “asked God.”

And even though he heard what he believed to be the voice of God he never spoke down to others. He just kept looking up and led by example.

In Lawrence Elliot’s biography of Carver, he writes, “God was ever part of his sense and sum of things, ever his motivating force.”

Carver was a man of God who changed the world humbly. We need more people like him who will sacrifice their lives for a cause, who will make the world a better place.

When Booker T. Washington heard of this noted agriculturist in Iowa, he wrote Carver this: “These things I now ask you to give up.

I offer you in their place work — hard, hard work — the task of bringing a people from degradation, poverty and waste to full manhood.”

Have we given up on changing the world? Where are the visionaries dreamers of today? Please step forward because we need you.

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April Goodwin is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Ames.